News and urgent request: Pray for Archbp. Brown!

This is from VIS, and it has two points of great interest. My emphases and comments.

PAPAL MASSES FOR EPIPHANY AND FEAST OF THE LORD’S BAPTISM

VATICAN CITY, 5 JAN 2012 (VIS) – At 9.30 a.m. tomorrow, Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Benedict XVI will preside at Mass in the Vatican Basilica. During the ceremony he will confer episcopal ordination[I still say “consecration”] upon archbishops-elect Msgr. Charles John Brown, apostolic nuncio to Ireland, [See my request below.] and Msgr. Marek Solczynski, apostolic nuncio to Georgia and Armenia. Following Mass the Pope will pray the Angelus from the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

On Sunday 8 January, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass in the Sistine Chapel and administer the Sacrament of Baptism to a number of children. At midday he will pray the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. [Usually celebrated ad orientem. Tune in. It is always beautiful.]

Please, dear readers, will you pray for my friend Msgr. Brown?

Perhaps you could stop what you are doing and say a Memorare for him and a Prayer to St. Michael? Perhaps you could ask Our Lady of Knock to strengthen him? Maybe you could offer a Communion and your daily Rosary? You priests and bishops reading this could remember him during Mass at the Memento of the Living. I will say Mass for his intention.

It is a heavy enough burden being consecrated bishop in this difficult age, but to be nuncio in Ireland… think about it.

Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to Thy protection,
implored Thy help or sought Thine intercession,
was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother;
to Thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in Thy mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

(I say that prayer after every Mass for a short list of bishops I know.)

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

25 Responses to News and urgent request: Pray for Archbp. Brown!

Holy Michael, Archangel,
Defend us in the day of battle;
Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou,
Prince of the Heavenly Host,
By the power of God,
Thrust down to Hell Satan, and all wicked spirits
Who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
Amen.

When saying the Rosary with Americans on the Chartres pilgrimage, we kept tripping up on conflicting translations… (ours is better!)

It’s funny, Fr. Z. I tried to say those two prayers and for some reason I could NOT concentrate…then–duh–I scrolled down and saw that you wrote them out! Thank you. Actually, I felt prompted to have a mass said for him awhile back. It will be on February 18, 2012 by Fr. George D. Byers http://holysoulshermitage.com/ I wanted to tell Msgr. Brown, but I never knew how to since I don’t know him. He will be in our prayers. God bless him! (p.s. I love Fr. Byers blog. I learn so much from him too!)

Prayers said. Just a note on the prayer to St. Michael; I, too, have noticed that it depends where you go as to to how it is prayed. “prowel, roam, wander,etc.” “thrust, cast” , “protection, safeguard”
It can get confusing. We just grab one and pray it. I hope God understands.

Prayers said, and, if I may add the following hymn to St. Patrick, asking him to intercede for Archbishop Brown and Ireland:

Hibernia’s Patron Saint, all hail!
With fadeless glory crowned;
The offspring of your ardent zeal,
This day your praise shall sound.
Great and glorious St. Patrick,
Pray for that dear country,
Great and glorious St. Patrick,
Hearken to the prayer of thy children!

I am glad Liz is having Fr George David Byers offer a Mass for him because the same thought crossed my mind (to have Fr Byers say Mass for him!)! His hermit vocation is especially to pray for bishops and priests and he is happy to accept stipend Mass requests. He is offering Holy Mass this coming Wednesday the 11th for Bishop Robert Morlino.

I made a telephone call to Msgr Charles Brown yesterday (the last full day he will have this title!, and he just wanted to everyone to know how grateful he for all the prayers being said for him, and to please remember him for the diffuclut that lies ahead for him, when he gets to Dublin, to be the papal nuncio to all of Ireland.

I reminded him because of the Fatima anniversaries taking place on important days in his life (his birth and ordination to the priesthood) that Our Blessed Mother has marked him, as her special child.

The Memorare (which I have often said in moments of diffiuclty) and prayer to St Michael, are particularly apposite.

Thank yo so much Fr Z, for emphasising the importance of this. Regardless, many of us are happy when an American gets an important post like this!

There are many here in Ireland who look forward to Archbishop Brown’s arrival with great expectation. He has a tough job ahead of him on many fronts.

Here is the prayer for priests written by the Irish World War I “martyr” of charity Fr William Doyle. Perhaps we may remember Archbishop Brown, and all priests, while saying it.

“O my God, pour out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice upon Thy priests. It is both their glory and their duty to become victims, to be burnt up for souls, to live without ordinary joys, to be often the objects of distrust, injustice, and persecution.

The words they say every day at the altar, “This is my Body, this is my Blood,” grant them to apply to themselves: “I am no longer myself, I am Jesus, Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a substance no longer itself, but by consecration another.”

O my God, I burn with desire for the sanctification of Thy priests. I wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee were hands whose touch is gentle and pleasing to Thee, that all the mouths uttering such sublime words at the altar should never descend to speaking trivialities.

Let priests in all their person stay at the level of their lofty functions, let every man find them simple and great, like the Holy Eucharist, accessible to all yet above the rest of men. O my God, grant them to carry with them from the Mass of today, a thirst for the Mass of tomorrow, and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts, to share these abundantly with their fellow men. Amen.”

I attended a retreat at a Benedictine Abbey where one of our Oblates named Lynn is a doctoral canidate at Trinity College in Dublin. Lynn works in the Republic of Ireland and is part of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress and works as a child protection representative for the Church of Ireland. She presently works with individuals in the Church and civil society to establish a National Child Advocacy Center. She cried when she described the empty
Churchs where there are no longer priests available. She and Msgr. Brown will be in my prayers and Masses. She and he have a tough road ahead of him. Pax.

Tom T, I don’t know of anywhere in Ireland, my native country, apart from some small islands, where there is no priest available for Sunday Mass. There may be some isolated rural areas too. Yes, the number of priests is decreasing and will continue to do so but the major problem at present is the huge percentage of people who don’t go to Mass anymore. 14 % attend Sunday Mass in the Archdiocese of Dublin, as few as 2 % in some parishes, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Many of these people have rejected not only the Church but the Christian faith.

For years members of the Church of Ireland (Anglicans – is that the church your friend Lynn works for?) and of other Christian groups have had only one Sunday service in most of their churches and chapels. Catholics have perhaps been spoiled with many Masses on Sunday, at least in urban centres. Maybe we’ll have to be thinking of only one Mass in most churches, as, I think, Archbishop Martin recently suggested. The number of Masses has been reduced in many places, eg, from five to four, from four to three, etc, at weekends. That in itself may be no harm at all. Pope Paul VI suggested that many years ago, thinking of largely empty churches in European cities at Sunday Masses.

But Ireland certainly needs prayers and probably needs to be seen as mission territory at this stage. Archbishop Brown will have mine.

Fr. Coyle, I am not familiar with, nor have I been to Ireland. You are eminately and obviously more qualified than I am to address the problems in Ireland. It is my understanding that Lynn works for the Catholic Church and she was , as you mentioned no doubt, referring to the declining number of priests which is not as you well know, a phenomenon not restricted to Ireland. I could have and probably did misunderstand what she was describing, between tears
since my hearing has declined over the years due to age. However, from the way Lynn described the problems in Ireland, it seemed to me to be a very serious situation with regard to the Faithful. I am of course aware of the problems in Europe ie; Austria, Germany and Australia however they seem to me to be of a different nature. More like a reformation and challenges to Papal Authority although, with the recall of the Vatican Ambassador, I guess the same could be said of Ireland. I agree, prayers are needed for sure. And mine are offered. Pax.

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Grant unto thy Church, we beseech
Thee, O merciful God, that She, being
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may
be in no wise troubled by attack from her
foes.
O God, who by sin art offended and by
penance pacified, mercifully regard the
prayers of Thy people making supplication
unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of
Thine anger which we deserve for our sins.
Almighty and Everlasting God, in
whose Hand are the power and the
government of every realm: look down upon
and help the Christian people that the heathen
nations who trust in the fierceness of their
own might may be crushed by the power of
thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

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